AA Part 5

Alternate Adventures
Volume One:
Part Five
By: The CRWS
Chance struggled to lift her head. She couldn’t find the strength. Bryant... I kept my promise.... she thought out. She was past coherency and not quite aware of anything. Her thoughts were jumbled and desperate. I didn’t.... I won’t.... Bryant... my friend... never... secrets.... I kept my promise.... Bryant, please... Bryant....
Over 20 minutes had passed since her silent scream for help and her keeper would be returning soon. She couldn’t have known that in her state, but she was vaguely aware of the urgency of her situation.
I found it, Bryant.... I found it.... she thought, almost as if she could actually tell him.
Her keeper walked in.

The little dark shape moved swiftly from tree branch to tree branch. Its eyes glowed in the dark. The sun had just set. Below it, a man stalked through the trees stealthily. The creature above him watched with little interest. Then, it stretched, yawned, and trotted off down the branch to leap to a nearby rooftop.
It was a cat. A blue-black cat, domestic looking, with harsh golden eyes. In her mouth, she carried a rabbit, her latest prey. Sitting on the rooftop, she ate this kill hungrily. Finished, she moved to the edge of the roof and dropped to a windowsill and then to the ground. She landed a mere foot behind the man who’d been walking through the trees.
Startled by the feline, the man nearly lost his balance, as he was crouching beside the wall. He remained silent as he glanced at the cat. The cat didn’t really care and simply sniffed him. She licked her lips and stood on her hind legs like a weasel to peer into his face. Then, she blinked, dropped down to all fours again and began to purr. The cat rubbed against the man’s knee.
A moment later, she turned away and trotted off towards another building. The man watched her go.
Turning a corner, she jumped up to a windowsill and peered through a hole in the wooden planks that covered the window. Feline night-vision allowed her to see into the dimly lit room inside. She gave a tiny mrow towards the figure inside before simply sitting there and washing her paws.
The man had followed her. He rose carefully to the window the cat sat on and gently pushed her far enough aside for him to peek through the hole in the wood. As his eyes adjusted, he could faintly make out the shape of a cocoon-like figure on a wall, past some meshed bars. He squinted in his effort to see better.
Abruptly, he heard the weakened mental voice as it rambled, I found it, Bryant.... I found it....
His eyes widened. *Prince Bryant?* he thought, surprised. *She knows him?* Thinking quickly, he tried to remember if he’d ever seen a girl of that age with the prince. Nothing came to mind.
Then he saw the door open inside. A strange man walked in. The man glanced into the cage and then walked over to a desk. He ran his hand over several weapons hung on the wall. Picking one up, he moved towards the cage.
Outside, Paul realized what was about to happen and glanced around quickly. “Here we go,” he murmured. Grabbing the cat and letting it drop to the ground, he stepped back. Then he kicked the window-boards in. The window was just big enough for him to scramble through it.
Immediately, he was on his feet and charging at the other man, who, it turned out, wasn’t really a man. He was something similar, but definitely not human. Paul slammed into him, causing him to stumble backwards and into the desk. Before the keeper was even on his feet again, Paul assaulted him mentally.
The keeper moaned and grabbed at his head. Before long, he was screaming in confusion and trying to rise to his feet in fear. When he did get to his feet, Paul confused him enough that he ran into a wall, knocking him unconscious.
As soon as his opponent fell to the stone floor, Paul nearly collapsed himself. He thought for a moment that he’d be ill. He’d overdone it. He grasped the bars of the cage and waited for his breath and sense of balance to return to him.
He heard a sound from the girl in the cage. “You came... thank you....”
She sounded so weak, as if she shouldn’t be capable of even opening her mouth. “Now, sir,” she gasped. “Could you please take me outside? I’d rather die out there....”

Seraph's mind began to wander while she brought up the rear of the group. First coming here, and falling among those dead bodies..how she remembered the feel of the cold, clammy skin of the dead soldier, the sickening squelch of flesh and shattered bone giving way as she landed on his chest, the harsh cawing and flapping wings of carrion crows as they tore at the bloodied flesh with cruel breaks. It was sickening, but yet somehow she felt as if she were part of it all, as if she belonged to it, and it to her. The redheaded girl was dimly aware of one hand clutched tightly around the silver ankh she always wore, the metal pressing into flesh from the virtual death-grip she had on the object. She could still see them, still feel them, and it made her flesh crawl... she wanted to claw at her skin, quite willing to rip it clear off if it would only make that damn feeling, like insects under her skin, go away. The mental image of the bloody battlefield came to her mind's eye again, only now the sky was a sooty red, and a slight-stature figure stood in the middle of the carnage, a carrion crow perching on their shoulder. She couldn't be sure since she couldn’t make out any features-it was merely a silhouette-,but the figure appeared feminine, with short hair and either wearing a long skirt or a dress of some sort. One thing she could see was the ankh-dagger held in the figure's hand, as well as a pair of crimson eyes that held an almost manic gleam. She could imagine the expression on the girl's-if it was a girl-face. She was grinning. A slight flick of her wrist, and the nearest body began to stir, to rise, like some kind of macabre puppet....
Seraph was now aware of the fact that she'd slumped against one of the cold stone walls, her arms now hanging limply at her sides. "Oh man... that was sick...."

Drew was trailing behind most of the group as the guards led them to the chambers the king had spoken of. Somewhere between the dragon ride and getting arrested she had developed one hell of a migraine.
The group turned a corner, passing a very bloodied soldier who was frantically looking up and down the halls. The guards ignored him. Drew wondered why at least one of them didn't stop to see what was wrong. But they probably already knew. And the soldier hadn't noticed the group yet.
The decrepit looking soldier turned and spotted them. He waved frantically. The guards didn't stop. Drew looked at her friends. They didn't seem to notice him either. The soldier stumble-ran over. Drew could have sworn her headache got worse.
"Has anyone seen Sky? I must find Sky. She might be hurt. I saw her run into the fighting. I need to know she made it back alive!"
Drew stopped. "What does she look like? I can keep an eye out for her. If i see her i can tell her you are looking for her."
The man looked relieved someone was finally paying attention to him. "She is very beautiful. She's about 3'4 at the shoulder, medium grey hair, blue eyes. very beautiful."
"She's kinda short. I hope she carried a big sword into that battle," Drew mumbled. Her headache seriously starting to impair her tact.
The soldier looked at her oddly. "My Sky is a dog. The most beautiful-"
"Got that part," Drew snapped. Pain also made her unusually irritable. "I'll keep an eye out for your dog."
The rear guard (who had been slacking back a bit seeing as how the strange girls didn't seem to be very threatening) finally caught up to the two of them. "Hey, now, lets keep moving. The king ordered you girls to be taken to the guest rooms."
Drew stared a little fuzzily at the guard. "Someone's gonna help him find his dog right?" She pointed at the soldier.
The guard gave her a weird look. "Help who find what dog?""Him. He wants someone to help him find Sky."
The guard looked a bit peeved. "There is no one there."
"Geesh! The poor guy looks like he's been through a meat tenderizer and y'all just ignore him! What type of weird ass society did we fall into?!" Drew practically screeched. With the amount of pain pounding in her brain right now, she had about as much sane thought as a drunk.
Stressful was an understatement for the day everyone in the castle had been having. Some weird female screeching at him made the guard snap. "I tell you there is NO BODY there!!"
Drew drew back and punched the guard. Taken by surprise, the guard stumbled backwards into the wall. His flail upset a rather large ceramic knickknack of some sort that decorated the walls at intervals. It fell squarely on his head, knocking him out.
Drew blinked a few times. "Oh shit." The soldier seemed speechless. "Well, ah, the rest of the group is, ah, out of sight, so ah, I guess, we can go look for your dog. And maybe find me some Tylenol, Asprin, Morphene...."
The soldier hesitated. Then seemed to make up his mind. "I'll just explain to the king what happened later. Now we must find my Sky."

Corey flopped down on the large four-post bed, looking up at the thick fabric of the canopy. A small whine came from the side of the bed; she looked over and smiled at the large wolf. She scratched his head lightly. He closed his eyes and let his tongue loll out of his mouth in happiness.
"You can get up here, you know," she told him. He hesitated for a moment, then crouched and leaped over her onto the other side of the bed. He turned a full circle before laying down on the comforter and rested his head on her stomach. She chuckled at him, scratching under the fur of his ruff while looking around. *This is quite a place,* she thought to herself. The room was made of stone—just like the rest of the castle—and quite expansive. The bedstead was made of dark hardwood, polished to a sheen and the mattress was stuffed with some kind of sweet-smelling herb that Corey could scent even through the thick downy comforter. She ran her fingers over the dark cover, feeling the alternating ridges of stitching that must have taken forever to put on. A huge wardrobe was on one wall, made of the same wood as the bedstead. Two plushly upholstered chairs sat before the grand fireplace, in which blazed a moderately-sized fire. It was getting chilly in the castle, after all, with darkness setting in. Luckily there were windows that could be opened and shut against the cold, and heavy cloth drapes to shut out the cold even more. She shivered against the coming cold and sighed.
"Well, Aram... I guess we should try and figure out just what in the world we've got to do around here, hm?" The wolf just looked at her, as if to say, ‘I'm not moving from this bed’. She stuck her tongue out at him and got up to close the windows. She noticed vaguely that the room faced the battlefield. She began to shut the windows and stopped suddenly, something filling her mind. Power, trickling in, cool and black and comforting....

Corey opened her eyes wearily, felt the bed underneath her and tried to discern where she was.
"Cor? Corey, you all right?" Who was that? It was... Cass. That was Cass' voice.
"Cass?" Corey croaked and wondered why in the Hell her voice was so rough. A glass was pressed to her lips.
"Easy, now. Don't try to do too much," someone else said. That voice finally registered as Willow's. Corey drank down the cool liquid—water, she realized—and tried focusing on the others in the room. Vallen stood at the foot of her bed with Seraphim and Arin. Cass was right next to her bed, holding the glass of water. Aramil was sitting on the bed next to her, looking down at her sharply.
"Why's everybody looking at me like I died?" she said lowly, pushing herself to a semi-sitting position.
"Because we thought you had," Willow told her, her eyes worried.
"What?"
"All we knew was that Aram was trying to rip Rain's hand off trying to get her to come in here. We followed him in and found you on the floor," Vallen told her.
"I've never seen you so pale," said Seraphim. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Corey squarely. "What'd you do, huh?"
Corey shook her head weakly. "Do? I didn't do anything! I went to close the window and felt... something. I don't know what it was."
Seraph went to the window and looked out, then shrugged and closed the window. "There's nothing."
"Why don't we go get you something to eat and bring it back. We'll get you some more water, too," offered Willow. She smiled and motioned the others out of the room quickly. Corey smiled back gratefully and laid back on the pillows to rest, trying to think of what had happened.
"I went to close the window. Then something came in my mind...."
~You fell.~
Corey blinked wildly. "What the—"
~You stopped at the window and fell down. You humans don't take magic very well when you first get it, do you?~ Aram nudged her cheek with his nose.
She looked at him, bewildered. "Great, now I'm hearing things."
~I'll thank you to call me a wolf, not a thing. I was afraid something bad had happened to you, cub. Don't do that anymore.~
She looked him squarely in the eyes, unblinking. "That's you talking." He blinked in answer. "Oh my God, I'm talking to a wolf...."

Willow took the tray of food down the corridor to Corey. When she entered, Corey was looking at the wolf Aram intently, as if listening to him. When Willow crossed into the room, Corey looked up at her. Wil shrugged.
"I used to talk to my cats back home all the time. Here, I've got you some food, but I don't think it'll be quite what you need right now. Sorry, it was all I could get." Corey took the food.
"Thanks." Willow smiled and began to sing softly under her breath while she crossed to the window to look outside.
"Hey Wil, what are you singing?" Corey asked. Willow shrugged.
"I dun know, just something that popped into my head. I like to sing, it makes me feel better. I thought maybe it could help soothe your nerves or something, but if you want me to stop I will." Corey thought for a moment, then shook her head.
"Naw, go ahead. It sounded nice." Willow grinned and began to sing again.
"If friendships can bloom,
And my tears fall as rain,
Then I'll make you strong,
And you'll live again."
Willow stopped singing abruptly. She could feel something pressing inside her body, as though there was something that wished to get out. It ached and pulled at her muscles as she slowly slid to the floor, leaning back against the cool stone walls.
"Hey Wil, you okay?" Corey looked over at her friend, who nodded dumbly.
"Yeah...." Willow felt a tightness in her throat, and she opened her mouth again and began to sing again, only she couldn't control herself. Notes spun wildly through the room, soon she was striking chords with her own voice before the pain in her body shot out in a burst of energy. Willow stopped her frantic singing immediately, and fell onto her side and was asleep. Corey listened for a moment as the sounds were swallowed by the thick stone walls, then turned to Willow's still pale form.
"Hey, what was that all about?" She demanded, feeling much more like her usual self. Aram padded over to the sleeping girl and nudged her arm then turned back to Corey.
~She's asleep. She spent much energy healing you from your fall. Let her rest, cub.~ He came back over to Corey's side and sat down.
"What do you mean? All I saw was she started to sing wildly and then collapsed. It was scary." She buried her fingers in Aram's fur again as she replayed the scene in her mind.
~You feel better, do you not?~ Corey thought a moment and did a quick self-examination.
"Yeah, I feel fine. What's your point?"
~She wanted to make you feel better and succeeded. That is what happened. Now, you should rest too, cub. You still haven't finished your food.~ He nudged the plate and gave Corey such a stern look that she picked up her food and began to eat it obediently.

Kevranan hoisted his harp back onto his shoulder and looked dubiously at the castle.
"Here, they must be here," he muttered to himself as he walked swiftly to the gate. With each step he took, the ache he had felt was decreasing. He knew it, there was someone he had to meet.
"Halt. State your name and business," the guards demanded of him. Kevranan brought himself up to his full height of 5'4" so he stood just below the guard's chin.
"I am Kevranan, Chief Musician of the Bard's Guild. I have urgent business inside." The guards looked down at him questioningly, then laughed.
"You don't look much like a Chief Musician. Today is not the day for you to finish your business, it is a busy day in the castle. Come back some other time." While the guard had been talking, Kevranan had slid his harp from his shoulder and was absently tuning it. When the guard finished speaking, Kevranan played a silent chord and hummed a bar of magic, and the guard stopped mid-sentence.
"Of course, Lord Kevranan. If you do need to conduct business inside, I'm sure it must be of great importance." He stood aside and opened the gate. Kevranan took a moment to bask in the pride of his handiwork before going through the gate. With a smile on his lips he bid the guard farewell and once more began to follow the trail to his goal.
Suddenly, a great burst of energy stopped him in his tracks.
"Mother of Mountains, what's going on?" He recognized that magical signature. "An untrained Song Weaver can be a dangerous Song Weaver...." he muttered. It would do no good if the person used all their energy and died before Kevranan got to them. He picked up his pace and began to look in earnest for his new pupil. He needed to make sure they didn't use any more power foolishly and kill themselves in the process.

Vallen stood in front of the door to the room she had been given and looked around. At one end of the room was a moderately large hardwood bed with a sea blue comforter on it. Against the wall across from her was a wooden desk with chair between a large window with a window seat, and a pair of glass doors leading out to a balcony. On the wall on either side of the bed was a large wardrobe and a dresser with a mirror above it. Across the wall from the bed was a large fire place with a nice size fire in it fighting off the cold that was coming with the night. Beneath her feet was a beautiful handmade rug.
"Wow...." was all she could say. Just then the door opened and she was knocked down. "Hey watch it!" she exclaimed from the floor. "Knock next time!" she said as she got to her hands and knees.
"I'm very sorry miss," a female voice said from behind.
Vallen sighed and got to her feet to turn and face the woman.
She was a few inches taller then Vallen with blonde hair pulled back in a French braid and wide blue eyes. She was wearing a long dress of light blue fabric with an ornate belt around her waist. She curtsied when Vallen met her eyes.
"Please don't," Vallen said. "I'm not royalty of any kind. I just forgot where I was for a moment. I'm sorry I snapped at you."
The woman nodded. "I'm Stella. The Head of staff sent me to see to you and the other ladies needs," she said.
Vallen looked down at herself. Her loose jeans where covered with dirt and dust and had a new hole in one knee, and her blue Sailor Moon T-shirt was dirty as well. She sniffed herself experimentally and wrinkled her nose. "What I need is a bath...." she muttered.
Stella nodded and disappeared.
Vallen blinked. "Huh?" she said wondering where Stella had gone to. She didn't have to wait long to see as Stella reappeared.
"I have had baths prepared for all of you in the bathing area. If you will follow me we will collect your friends and I will guide you there."
Vallen nodded and followed.

Aerielle paced the floor in deep thought. Liam lay, relaxed on the soft, coverlet calmly watching her.
It wasn't often that common folk like herself were allowed into the castle and meet the king. Today she had done both.
*Not that it was under the best of circumstances,* she thought wryly. *And what about the other young women brought to the castle? They looked just as confused as I am.* She stopped abruptly in the center of the room. "And what am I going to tell my parents?" she asked aloud. "This is too much to take in right now." She sighed and flopped down on the bed next to Liam.
Liam raised his silver head, ears arched forward. ~Child, don't worry about it. Your parents will understand. As for the other young women, we will find out soon enough.~
Aeri smiled. "I guess so. But I'd still like to know where they came from."
~As would the king.~
"Heh, true." She ruffled his silky fur playfully. "I wonder where the pixie went." Liam snorted, lay his head his front paws and closed his eyes. Aeri glanced out the window. *It'll be dark soon. I wonder... what all this means.*
A gentle knock at the door broke her musing. Liam opened on eye. Aeri frowned and opened the door a crack. "Yes?"
A young maid stood on the other side and asked if she would like a bath. Aeri blinked and glanced down at her slate blue dress. "Yeah I think I will, um... can this be cleaned?" She gestured at the mud, grass and bloodstains (from the daemon she had killed) on her dress.
The maid frowned. "I think so."
Aeri smiled cheerfully. "Thank you!" She piled her long, plum hair atop her head and secured it with a ribbon, then followed the maid to the baths.
She smiled blissfully as she sank into the hot, soapy water. *Now this is worth being arrested.*

Liz lay back in the porcelain bathtub. The bubbly, warm water soothed her tired muscles and cleaned her dirty skin. Around her, her friends were doing the same, lying back in baths of their own.
As she idly played with the bubbles, Liz thought. How had they come to this foreign world? She recalled being in the mall, waiting for the movie to start. Then they had encountered that nasty bunch of girls, and had begun a cat-fight, but then there was that bright light and she was spinning around in this colorful abyss. Then, they had wound up here. Were they summoned here, or was it just a strange coincidence? And moreover, where the heck was here? It didn't seem like any world she'd seen, or any anime for that matter. It seemed more medieval and King Arthury, like in those awesome books that she had read. Liz sighed. Why couldn't anything interesting like this happen every day?
"I think we need more of these odd goings-on in our world. We don't get enough, unless it's in anime," she said to herself, then thought for a moment. "Of course, we need to go to a place with a little less blood and a little more Quatre."
Liz could hear the others fall over, or as best they could being in the bath tubs.

Vallen walked among the ‘stalls’ in the bath room the maids had lead them to with a robe tightly tied around her figure. The stalls were in reality cast iron tubs surrounded on all sides by privacy curtains. The room was long with three rows of ten tubs and a huge fireplace at each end, and two on each of the other walls towards the middle. The girls were surprised by the room, and especially surprised when they found out they had plumbing.
“Seraphim?”
“Here!”
“Cass?”
“Here!”
“Drew?”
“Here!”
“Rhys?”
“Ici!”
“Arin?”
*Splash!*
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Vallen smirked.
“ACK! Stupid soap! Here!”
Giggles answered her rant.
“Liz?”
“Here!”
“Willow? .... Willow? Corey? .... Anyone see Willow or Corey? And who’s the plum/silver haired girl?”

Suddenly, a small bird, very odd in color and not looking at all like a regular bird, flew in through the open window and perched on the side of her tub.
"Why, hello there!" Liz said pleasantly. "Have you come to help me figure out why we're here?" The bird cocked its head to the side.
"Of course, you can't understand me, can you?" she said with a small laugh. "I must be losing my mind, talking to a bird."
"Oh, I understand quite well. It's your question that puzzles me." Liz blinked, and stared at the bird in amazement.
"Did you just talk?" she asked. It gave her an are-you-crazy- look, or as best he could, seeing as he was a bird.
"Of course I did. It's you I'm surprised that can talk. Usually humans can't talk with me. It's not that fun, really. They never even understand my jokes..." he shook his little bird head sadly.
"I think I'm going insane. I'm talking to a bird..." Liz said to herself.
"I told you, you are not going insane. You just have a special gift, that's all. Some people do, and I guess you do too. That's nice because then I can talk to someone. I talk to myself a lot," the bird replied. Suddenly, Liz felt an immense jolt in her forehead, like someone had slammed her head into a wall. She cried out and the bird began tweeting furiously at the others. Liz gripped her head, yelling in pain, as the other girls pulled on bath robes and ran over to her. She was holding her head in her hands, screaming at the top of her lungs. All she could hear were the frantic calls of the bird and the worried-sounding voices of her friends. She couldn't see, couldn't think, couldn't breathe. All she could feel was the horrible pounding in her skull before everything dissolved away.